Youngblood: Look for lots of scoring when Wolves meet Warriors

Blog Post by: Kent Youngblood

November 6, 2013 - 12:48 PM

It should be an interesting night at the Target Center.

The Wolves host the Golden State Warriors. The team hoping to be the breakthrough team of this season hosting the team that broke through last year. The Wolves (fifth in scoring in the NBA) vs. the Warriors (first). The second- and third- most productive fast-breaking teams in the league.

Both teams are 3-1.

“We’ve been tested in every way (so far),” Kevin Love said today after shootaround. “We had teams come back on us. We played well against Oklahoma City, we had a game where we had to fight back. This will be another test, Golden State. Because they have guys who can really shoot. It will be a test to see what our perimeter defense can do.’’

The Warriors have three players averaging 19.8 points or more in David Lee (19.8), Stephen Curry (22.0) and Klay Thompson (22.5). Both Thompson and Curry are shooting 50 percent or better from three-point range, as is Andre Iguodala. The three of them have combined to hit 41 of 81 three-point shots. It will be interesting to see how the Wolves attack this threesome.

In other items from today’s shootaround:

--No update yet on Ronny Turiaf’s right elbow. Turiaf, who sustained a radial head fracture in the elbow vs. Oklahoma City Friday, saw a doctor in New York – the same doctor who worked on Kevin Love’s hand – but the team hasn’t given an approximate return timetable yet. One might come tonight. The good news is that Turiaf wasn’t in a sling this morning. He had a compression sleeve on the elbow instead.

--Rookie center Gorgui Dieng admitted that the little playing time he’s had so far has been educational. The Wolves had hoped Dieng could be an effective backup to Nikola Pekovic with Turiaf hurt. But Dieng has had a hard time avoiding foul trouble. Dieng said Pekovic took him aside after shootaround today and told him not to let officiating get in the way of him playing aggressively.

“I’ll listen to him and do the best I can,” he said. “I’m not going to stop playing aggressive. But I need to know my job.’’

Love on whether the Warriors season last year can serve as a template for Minnesota this season: “I’ll be saying this all year,” Love said. “We want to take it game by game. But we’d like to do what they did last year. They had a great run. Steph and Klay and David Lee are the anchors who helped them to be the darlings of the NBA.”